The present invention relates to the manufacture of tilt-up concrete panels, and more particularly to a system of components for facilitating casting of panels on a casting surface without the need for penetrations, as by nails in drilled holes, of the casting surface as is common in traditional panel forming methods.
It is well known in the process of manufacturing concrete walls or wall sections to form them on a substantially flat, hard surface such as a concrete floor, and subsequently to tilt up the hardened and cured concrete section to form a wall or wall section. It is common practice in the construction industry to pour several walls or wall sections of a building on a previously poured and hardened floor of the building under construction. In doing so, a suitably large area of the floor is formed or fenced off by a plurality of wooden forms which define the edges of the final wall or section. These forms are attached to the floor so as to prevent dislocation or movement, particularly in a lateral direction. The surface of the floor is provided with a suitable bond-beaker material in order to prevent the newly formed section from adhering to the floor. A concrete mix is then poured into the area fenced off by the wooden forms. After curing and hardening of the newly poured concrete, the wooden forms are removed and the concrete wall section is lifted off the floor by a crane or other suitable device to complete a wall section of the building.
The usual practice after.the concrete floor or foundation has been poured and cured is that a wooden form is constructed on the floor into which concrete for the wall panels can be poured. The wall form: is a wooden plank, such as a 2xc3x9710 plank and which is supported by wooden brackets spaced along the form at, for example, 2 foot intervals, and nailed to the concrete floor. This type of installation involves a substantial amount of manual labor. In addition, after the concrete panel is cast into the form area, the forms and base and whatever brace members are used must be removed and, importantly, the nail holes in the floor need to be patched. This involves additional manual labor. Presently, one may end up with 1,000-10,000 such holes in the concrete floor which must be patched.
Also, a chamfer strip is added inside of the resulting form adjacent the floor and forms to suitably chamfer the edge of the concrete wall panel. If this is not done, the edge tends to crumble after the wall: is completed.
Example prior art systems can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,568, U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,111 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,205.
The present invention eliminates the need for nailing wooden forms to a concrete or other floor or base, and the need for adding a chamfer strip. This is accomplished by providing an elongated base track or strip and brackets attached thereto to support a wooden form between.the base and bracket. Preferably, the bracket and strip are configured so that the bracket can merely snap into a channel or longitudinal slot in the base track. The bottom of the base track has secured thereto one or more strips of two sided adhesive along the whole length of the base track to adhere the base track to the concrete floor onto which the wall section is to be poured. The base track itself has a chamfered edge for providing a chamfer on an edge of the concrete wall. This system eliminates the need for penetrating the floor with nails or other fasteners and thus also eliminates the need to patch the resulting holes. Furthermore, no separate chamfer strip is needed. Also, the components may be reusable.
In a presently preferred embodiment, a base strip and bracket are provided along with a batter clip attachable to the upper end of the bracket so as to position the wooden form at a slight angle or cant the form, so as to provide a camber at one end or side of a concrete panel which will become the top or roof line of a wall. The batter clip pushes the form away from the bracket by a small angle to create the camber. The camber created by this technique is an important feature to reduce the problem when dust collects at the top of a panel used as a wall, at the roof line. Because of this, the dust and dirt that collects on the top can work itself down inside the wall rather than down the outside. This is advantageous because if the dust works down the outside of the wall and it rains, the outside of the wall is streaked with the moist dust and dirt.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved concrete panel forming system.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide components and a system for forming tilt-up concrete panels without requiring penetration of the base surface by fasteners such as nails and the like.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide a concrete panel forming system comprising an elongated base track and support brackets which snap into a channel in the base track for supporting a wooden form.
Another feature of the present invention is a tilt-up concrete panel forming system incorporating an integral chamfer strip.